D&D 5E (+) Social Mechanics Optional Modules

[Jer]

A simple thing that I've used a bunch is to make most of the skills also social skills in terms of getting along with and interacting with NPCs who share a skill set. So someone with Animal Handling can do social stuff with drovers and drivers. That sort of thing. I find this opens up a lot of character builds to actual usefulness in social encounters without actually changing the mechanics of the game at all. It also makes sense in a 'shop talk' kind of way.

I quite like this and use a variation of it as well in my games - letting players substitute relevant skills as social skills where it makes sense makes me happy. Though the way that I do it is that it isn't the skill, it's just if they have a relevant skill or proficiency then I let them add the proficiency bonus for that skill to their Charisma or Wisdom checks (so expertise counts, but they don't get to use their full Acrobatics bonus to get onto the circus acrobat's good side). If they have a tool proficiency that's relevant it's the same - so the guy trying to get onto the gambler's good side can use his card proficiency bonus on his Charisma check even if he doesn't have a relevant skill for it. It's basically in the same mechanical ballpark as other game systems where you can mix your skill and stat bonuses instead of having a skill depend entirely on a single stat.

 

[Fenris-77]

I quite like this and use a variation of it as well in my games - letting players substitute relevant skills as social skills where it makes sense makes me happy. Though the way that I do it is that it isn't the skill, it's just if they have a relevant skill or proficiency then I let them add the proficiency bonus for that skill to their Charisma or Wisdom checks (so expertise counts, but they don't get to use their full Acrobatics bonus to get onto the circus acrobat's good side). If they have a tool proficiency that's relevant it's the same - so the guy trying to get onto the gambler's good side can use his card proficiency bonus on his Charisma check even if he doesn't have a relevant skill for it. It's basically in the same mechanical ballpark as other game systems where you can mix your skill and stat bonuses instead of having a skill depend entirely on a single stat.

This is pretty much what I'm doing too. I don't have them rolling Acrobatics plus Dex to schmooze, I'll get them to roll an more appropriate stat. A flexible approach to the skill system really fixes a lot of my kvetches with 5E.

Acrobatics plus Dex in a social situation might be appropriate if, say, the PC was trying to impress some acrobats and establish their bonafides. At that point I'd probably run things like a complex test and have several rolls snowball or affect a ladder or clock so something.

 

[Voadam]

I like modular downtime expansions that are easy to implement.

I am happy running most things first person roleplaying with little or no mechanics and making judgment calls based on character concepts and history when doing a lot of second person stuff but sometimes it is nice to have a little structure for "I want to spend a week spreading rumors about the Red Countess to drive public opinion against her."

Xanathar's has a few subsystems.

AiME had some neat wilderness travelling subsystems that could be a decent basis for some downtime activities (different roles that PCs can take with associated skill checks and a chart that might call for checks from different role characters or might not, with various effects based on successes and failures from a chart for each).

Paizo did a bunch of such expansions in a bunch of their Pathfinder adventure paths from reputation building in a town when dealing with an escalating ghost curse situation to running or participating in a revolution.

A bunch of d20 systems developed systems and a bunch of non-D&D type systems have similar stuff to varying degrees.

 

[payn]

This isnt a type a thing I usually think about for D&D, though I often think about an interrogation style mechanic for clandestine style RPG. In this, the player and GM need to allow the mechanics to drive the play a little. For example, you are in a classic across the table scene from any number of media. Each side takes turns either asking a question or providing an answer. You roll to see if the question breaks the interrogee's will, or the interrogee spins a falsehood that fools the interrogator.

I have never gotten further than that. I dont know many players who like spy stuff like me.

 

[Baron Opal II]

I generally compare wisdom vs charisma.

If the target's Wis > speaker's Cha they are likely resistant to persuasion or deception.
If the target's Wis < speaker's Cha they are likely susceptible to persuasion or deception.
If someone is proficient in Insight, Persuasion, &c., they add their proficiency modifier to the score.
The speaker gains +/- 1-4 depending on differences in status, bribes, camaraderie, &c., as well as how the RP moves along.

A difference of ≥5 yields mostly what you want, or a certainty that you aren't through this tactic. You have three opportunities to adjust the values- opening, negotiation, attempt to close.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I generally compare wisdom vs charisma.

If the target's Wis > speaker's Cha they are likely resistant to persuasion or deception.
If the target's Wis < speaker's Cha they are likely susceptible to persuasion or deception.
If someone is proficient in Insight, Persuasion, &c., they add their proficiency modifier to the score.
The speaker gains +/- 1-4 depending on differences in status, bribes, camaraderie, &c., as well as how the RP moves along.

A difference of ≥5 yields mostly what you want, or a certainty that you aren't through this tactic. You have three opportunities to adjust the values- opening, negotiation, attempt to close.

This is how I run simple social interactions, that I don’t see as needing a whole scene all to themselves. The only thing I do differently is that higher wisdom doesn’t mean they’re resistant to persuasion, it means they have a high understanding of the other characters meaning, honesty/dishonesty, general intent, and the gravity or general nature of the situation. If the PCs do poorly on their roll, it means that the NPC is unimpressed or even possibly offended by them. These are essentially two different checks, with consequences alongside eachother.

 

[JEB]

Isn't that basically what the 5e NPC stat blocks are. I know I use them that way. I just slap on the extra goodies from the NPC stat block to a lizardfolk (or whatever) and voila - I have a lizardfolk archmage.

Well, officially you're supposed to do the opposite (add lizardfolk traits - either the ones from the DMG or the traits from their Volo's/MOTM writeup - to an NPC statblock). What you're doing, however, would be cooler (and what I was getting at). Plus templates like @doctorbadwolf is implicitly creating ("actor" NPC, etc.).